Tokyo stocks open higher on signs of strong US economy

Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday, helped by a cheaper yen and optimism over the US economy following strong jobs data that also saw Wall Street shares rise.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.42 percent, or 87.74 points, at 20,876.13 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.60 percent, or 9.33 points, to 1,573.96.

Wall Street shares ended mostly higher after stronger-than-expected US jobs data.
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The dollar fetched 109.52 yen in early Asian trade, little changed from 109.51 yen in New York but higher than 108.86 yen in Tokyo on Friday.

The US Federal Reserve’s “postponing of its rate hikes and expectations for progress in US-China trade talks will keep supporting Japanese shares”, said Tsuyoshi Nomaguchi, strategist at Daiwa Securities.

Investors are also watching earnings reports due this week, including SoftBank Corp. on Tuesday and SoftBank Group and Toyota on Wednesday, he said.

In Tokyo, NTT Docomo was up 0.53 percent at 2,630 yen after a brokerage firm revised up its estimate on the shares’ value.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical rallied 3.29 percent to 8,160 yen after a brokerage firm revised up the shares’ value.

But Sony was down 8.03 percent at 5,057 yen after it said it has lowered its annual sales forecast.

Honda was down 3.05 percent at 3,146 yen after it said it logged a fall of 34.5 percent in net profit for the nine months to December.

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